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Most of the value of Mauer's batting lies in his position. We have an advantage playing any team in the league when it comes to the batting of the catchers. This might seem negligible but this is where the value of his bat lies. Now, the long and pricey contract paired with constant injuries/time off AND Pinto... The Twins' hand was forced here.

The writing has been on the wall & it is now official, so lets be glad this debate is finally over. Time will tell how Mauer, an all around athlete will perform as an MLB full-time 1st baseman. The question now is what comes next?

With Mauer penciled in as the starting 1st baseman for years to come makes Parmelee expendable. Here's a trade proposal.

Parmelee, Rosario, Willingham & Swarzak for David Price.

The Rays can use a 1st baseman, a DH & a long-reliever for the immediate future (2014 season) & will also obtain a top rated prospect in Rosario.

Most of the value of Mauer's batting lies in his position. We have an advantage playing any team in the league when it comes to the batting of the catchers. This might seem negligible but this is where the value of his bat lies.

First off, his 1.9 positional runs would instead be -10 (for about 3/4 of a season at 1B with the -12.5 position adjustment).

So, he'd lose 12 runs of value.

How about his fielding relative to his position. He's an above average catcher - worth + 4 runs last season. How will he be at first? I don't know. Maybe he's average, maybe a bit above. For this I'll say he's worth 2.5 runs more than the average 1Bman. Feel free to substitute your own number. Using my guess he loses another roughly 2 runs of value.

He's down 14 runs as a 1Bman compared to being a catcher. That leaves him at 30 runs above replacement.

But, the idea is that he will be able to play more often. For ease of math let's say he gets to 600 PA's next year instead of the 508 he got last year. If he kept all of his same rates, he'd increase his batting runs to 30, his running runs would stay about the same, his replacement runs would increase to 17, and his positional runs would be -11.5. Summing those numbers gives us 38 runs. That's a difference of about 8 runs.

The twins should expect to lose about 1 WAR by moving Mauer to 1B

Mauer was the 7th best hitter (by wRC+) in the AL last year. That bat plays at any position

I didn't factor in the extra at bats into my thoughts... Glad that helps justify the decision. Some of his value decreases even if he is the exact same hitter at 1st. Maybe playing an easier position helps his batting slightly? We'll never know. Maybe his power goes up a bit having his legs under him while hitting? Again, we'll never know.

Pinto is the true answer to this equation. If Pinto can fill in to be an above average catcher the move is completely justified. If Pinto struggles I can't help but think the Twins will either non publicly regret the decision or be tempted to put him back behind the plate.

Salty has also been mentioned as a catcher they are interested in. I wouldn't be surprised to see A.J back, but I would personally rather spend the money elsewhere with Hermann/Doumit/Pinto/Fryer all capable.

]”Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.”

The writing has been on the wall & it is now official, so lets be glad this debate is finally over. Time will tell how Mauer, an all around athlete will perform as an MLB full-time 1st baseman. The question now is what comes next?

With Mauer penciled in as the starting 1st baseman for years to come makes Parmelee expendable. Here's a trade proposal.

Parmelee, Rosario, Willingham & Swarzak for David Price.

The Rays can use a 1st baseman, a DH & a long-reliever for the immediate future (2014 season) & will also obtain a top rated prospect in Rosario.

Parmalee has no value. He hasn't shown the ability to hit MLB pitching at all except for his first september call-up. I had a lot of confidence Parm could be our 1B of the future with good power, but it just isn't happening. I also don't know how appealing Willingham is. Down year last year and his knees are going too. I expect him to spend a lot of time at DH this season with Arcia playing primarily in LF.

]”Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.”